Wednesday, October 24, 2012

It has been a rough winter, stormy and destructive. Coming home (after a weekend away) is never fun when faced with a collapsed arbor, the beams split and the lantern hanging precariously close to the ground...

Or... waking up in the morning and noticing a large black something in the pool. Half-frozen with fright that it may be one of the cats... it was almost a relief to discover it was a porcelain urn which had cracked in 70 pieces, thanks to another falling beam...

And then, after another night of the unrelenting Cape Doctor, the creeper (poor thing) finally gave up hanging by one twig and took its final bow (for entirety). Took us a whole morning to dispose of the branches...

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Not joking when I tell you that the wind (dubbed the Cape Doctor) has been blowing 15 conjoined-hurricanes here in Cape Town. The kind of night-time-howling that makes one cower under the covers, simply waiting for that moment when the roof blows off. I have photographic evidence of damage incurred to date (next posting). In the meantime, until summer decides to reveal itself, here is what I would call the perfect winter kitchen...

Just three of the many intricate drawings from the book Cajal’s Butterflies of the Soulbyauthor, Javier DeFelipe - a research professor at the Cajal Institute in Madrid. Ninety one additional Scientists are also featured in the book, but Cajal (the Nobel Prize-winning 'father of modern neuroscience') is singled out in the title. His illustrations have Twombly-esque qualities - amazing since they were executed in the late 1800's...

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

This image depicts a drawer of Irish freshwater molluscs, a classification that includes snails, slugs, clams and squid. This is exactly how I would display a collection on a wall - love them jam-packed together...

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Some of the world’s most famous ships, including the RMS Titanic and the Olympic, were designed in the Harland & Wolff Drawing Offices, and built in the nearby yard. An exhibition by photographer, Christopher Heaney (last February) was just one of the events planned at Ulster Hall to mark the centenary of the Titanic's maiden voyage and sinking...

Monday, October 8, 2012

Built in the sixteenth century, the glorious Palazzo Orlandi in Prato (near Florence) has undergone a painstakingly thoughtful restoration. During the extensive rehabilitation by Sabrina Bignami, the main focus was to restore the house to its original bones (all additions made in the early 1900's were removed). Bignami also discovered that all the frescos on the first floor had been covered in white paint. Today, the 'noble floor' houses private quarters and a small, exclusive guesthouse...